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Rep. Schakowsky Issues Statement on Republican CHIP Legislation

Targeted News Service

WASHINGTON, Nov. 23 -- Rep. Jan Schakowsky, D-Illinois, issued the following statement in response to House Republicans' intent to force a House vote on a Republican bill to reauthorize the Children's Health Insurance Program, Community Health Centers and other important public health programs. The Republican bill holds funding for these crucial programs hostage in order to continue sabotaging the Affordable Care Act, gutting public health funding and undermining the Medicare Program:

"Leave it to the House GOP to threaten something as crucial as health care for children by tying it to their destructive partisan objectives. The Children's Health Insurance Program provides health care to 9 million kids across the country, including 1.6 million children in Illinois. The program has been hugely successful: since its inception in 1997, the rate of uninsured children in our country has dropped by 66%. For two decades, the reauthorization of the program had received broad bipartisan support. Until now.

"Today, Republicans are forcing us to vote on an unfair, partisan bill that proposes paying for CHIP by completely assaulting other areas of our health care system. Republicans are willing to pay for health care for kids, but only if we agree to gut the public health Prevention Fund, completely undermine the Medicare program, and change the rules of the Affordable Care Act so that nearly 700,000 Americans lose their insurance.

"Republicans are trying to sneak cruel and ridiculous provisions into a bill that should be simple and straightforward. The cuts in this bill would slash funding for children's vaccination programs, lead poisoning prevention programs, and chronic health condition prevention programs. This bill is unacceptable. My Republican colleagues should be ashamed of themselves."